London Banter - View Single Post

asdf · June 2nd 06, 01:14 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On 1 Jun 2006 04:53:00 -0700, wrote:

Anyway, what would really suit my needs would be a Zone 6 only (or
Zones 5-6) bus pass, but it seems this doesn't exist - it's all of
London or nothing for the buses, meaning an outlay of £540, which
could well be more than I'd spend on the buses in a year anyway!

Indeed. There are many cases nowadays where it's cheaper to use
pre-pay each day rather than get a season.

I therefore began wondering about an alternative plan, which would be
to get a Zones 5-6 Travelcard, for £560, i.e. basically the same as a
bus pass, but valid on other transport methods, which around here just
means National Rail. (I seem to recall reading on this group recently
that even a limited travelcard like this would be valid on all buses
anywhere in London, so this really does seem to be a case of paying
just £20 more for access to Zones 5-6 of trains.)

That's quite right.

The advantage of this would be that on the numerous occasions each year
when I currently buy an off-peak one-day all zones travelcard, I could
presumably just buy a Zones 1-4 one instead, saving me, at current
prices, 90p a time. (I assume that 5-6 plus 1-4 equals 1-6, doesn't
it?)

Yes. However, your annual Travelcard would come with a Gold Card. This
is a discount card which, amongst other things, lets you buy a Z1-6
ODTC for £4.80, saving a further 60p compared to getting an
undiscounted Z1-4 ODTC.

I also assume that this would save me something on a National Rail
Return to London, e.g. I guess I would only have to pay for Sidcup
(which is the last station I'd pass through in Zone 5 - or would it be
New Eltham, the first station I would reach in Zone 4?)

No, the former...

to London
return rather than Crayford to London. This looks like it would cost
£4.00 rather than £5.10, so that would give even more of a saving per
trip.

It would actually cost £2.65, as your Gold Card would give you a 1/3
discount (after 10am Mon-Fri and all weekend).

So I guess what I'm really asking here is:
- Does all this sound like an idea that would work and would be
worthwhile?

Yes, though you'd have to make over £100 worth of savings on rail and
additional bus journeys during the year for it to become worthwhile.

- Could it cause hassle, for instance when buying tickets for zones 1-4
or Sidcup to London while at a Zone 6 NR station?

It's most unlikely you'd be able to buy them from a ticket machine at
the Z6 station, but you should have no problem getting them from the
ticket office (*if* it's open).

If the ticket machines are of the older sort, they might not even sell
Gold Card discounted ODTCs.

- Are there any technical issues related to having a Zones 5-6
travelcard on an Oyster when my local station can't handle Oyster very
well (they can't issue them for instance)?

Nope, except that you'll have to go to a station that does sell them
to buy it (and if it stops working or you lose it, etc).

- Does anyone have any other comments about all this, or better ideas?

Compared to driving a car, the walking part is fine, but (depending
how frequent/reliable they are and how impatient you are) you may get
fed up having to wait around for buses every time. Perhaps you should
try it for a month or so (using pre-pay) before splashing out on an
annual season.